Nihal Patel is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Group. He counsels both financial institutions and “buy-side” market participants on a variety of regulatory and compliance issues relating to securities and derivatives trading. This includes, inter alia, advice as to numerous aspects of broker-dealer regulation and swap regulatory issues arising under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act.

He also has substantial experience in drafting and negotiating prime brokerage, derivatives, and other trading and financing documentation. Recently, he was a member of the Cadwalader team that represented ISDA in the drafting of protocols and other documentation for addressing requirements of CFTC regulations adopted under Dodd-Frank. He has also been a speaker on these and related topics at industry conferences in the United States and abroad.

Nihal is a contributor to the chapters on trading and dealings with customers in Lofchie’s Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation and the swap definition, margin, and employees chapters of Lofchie’s Guide to CPO/CTA Regulation.

He earned his B.A. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he served on the board of the Northwestern University Law Review. Nihal is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

Recent Articles & Comments

A wise man once said, "In order to manage risk we must first understand risk. How do you spot risk? How do you avoid risk and what makes it so risky?"

The consultation paper takes that sage Costanza guidance to heart. It is short on conclusions and primarily an analysis of the efficacy of various types of risk metrics. In particular, the report considers: (i) gross notional exposure, without adjustment, (ii) adjusted gross notional exposu...

Given that the CFTC passed on making changes to the de minimis rules beyond leaving the amount at $8 billion, the most interesting part of the release is the summary of comments on the broader proposals and the CFTC response to those comments. Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo emphasized that the CFTC would continue to analyze the issues raised in the proposal. The adopting release provides tea leaves for those interested in considering where the CFTC might come out on further ch...

The de minimis proposal is, as Chairman Giancarlo indicated, a stopgap measure. By all accounts from the open meeting, the CFTC has punted on more ambitious changes to the rules. However, Mr. Giancarlo indicated that the CFTC staff would consider no-action relief that would address the exception for swaps entered into by insured depositary institutions in connection with loans. The...

The SEC's objective and the result of the Statement are entirely reasonable. It makes little sense to require market participants to re-document relationships for SBS when substantially similar work has long-since been undertaken for swaps. With that said, the Statement is a bit of an oddity in form and scope.

First, it reads like a staff no-action letter, except that it comes directly from the Commission. This is consistent with previous statements from SEC Chairman...